26 October in Indian and World History is celebrated, observed, and remembered for various reasons. 26 October is the birth anniversary of Godavarish Mishra, Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi, and Ram Prakash Gupta.
26 October is also observed as the death anniversary of Pandit Dattatreya Vishnu Paluskar, Manmath Nath Gupta, and Balraj Bhalla.
Birth Anniversary
26 October in Indian history is celebrated as the birth anniversary of the following personalities:
Godavarish Mishra (26 October 1886 – 25 July 1956), a famous social reformer, litterateur and public activist from Orissa. He has written poems, plays, novels, short stories and biography etc. His autobiography was rewarded by ‘Bharatiya Sahitya Akademi’. Godavarish Mishra had also held the post of Education Minister and Finance Minister of Odisha in 1941. He was born on 26 October 1886 Puri in Orissa.
Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi (26 October 1890 – 25 March 1931), a fearless and impartial journalist, at the same time he was a social worker, freedom fighter and skilled. He was also a politician. He had an important contribution in the ‘Freedom Struggle’ of India. It is a very difficult task to lock the mouth of others with your outspokenness and different style. The power of the pen has always been more than the sword and there are many journalists who changed the path from their pen to power. Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi was also one such journalist, who with the power of his pen shook the foundation of British rule. He was such a freedom fighter who, along with pen and speech, continued to provide active support to the non-violent supporters of Mahatma Gandhi and revolutionaries alike in the independence of the country. He was born on 26 October 1890 in Prayag, Uttar Pradesh.
Ram Prakash Gupta (26 October 1923 – 1 May 2004), a famous leader of the ‘Bharatiya Janata Party’. He was the former Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh and Governor of Madhya Pradesh. Ram Prakash Gupta had joined the ‘Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’ from his student life. In 1948, he did a Satyagraha to remove the ban on ‘Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’. During this he was arrested and sent to jail. He was elected a member of the Legislative Assembly in the year 1977 and again in 1993. After this he became the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh in the year 1999 and the Governor of Madhya Pradesh in 2003. He was born on 26 October 1923 in Jhansi, Uttar Pradesh.
Read More: 25 October in Indian and World History
Death Anniversary
26 October in Indian history is observed as the death anniversary of the following personalities:
Pandit Dattatreya Vishnu Paluskar (28 May 1921 – 26 October 1955), a Hindustani classical music singer. He is known as a prodigious child. Paluskar died on 26 October 1955.
Manmath Nath Gupta (7 February 1908 – 26 October 2000), a prominent revolutionary and accomplished writer of the Indian freedom struggle. He has composed autobiographical, historical and fiction literature in Hindi, English, and Bengali. He jumped into the freedom struggle at the age of only 13 and went to jail. Later he also became an active member of the Hindustan Republican Association and at the age of 17 he actively participated in the Kakori massacre in 1925. Gupta died on 26 October 2000.
Balraj Bhalla (10 June 1888 – 26 October 1956), one of the famous revolutionaries of India. His father Mahatma Hansraj was a famous educationist and was the first Principal of ‘D. A. V. College’ Lahore. Balraj Bhalla was very adventurous and was always ready to take risks. In the last days of his life, he became a follower of Gandhiji. He died on 26 October 1956.
Read More: 24 October in Indian and World History
Notable events on 26 October in Indian and World history
26 October 1905 – Norway gained independence from Sweden.
26 October 1934 – All India Rural Industries Association was established under the patronage of Mahatma Gandhi.
26 October 1934 – Cholera epidemic in Kolkata killed 2155 people in the third week of October.
26 October 1947 – Raja Hari Singh agreed to merge Jammu and Kashmir with India.
26 October 1947 – The British army’s occupation of Iraq was removed.
26 October 1950 – Saint Mother Teresa founded the Charity Mission in Calcutta.
26 October 1951 – Winston Churchill became the Prime Minister of Britain.
26 October 1956 – Hungary’s new Prime Minister Imre Nagy appealed to the people to maintain peace on the third day of fighting between demonstrators and Soviet forces.
26 October 1969 – Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, the first astronauts to set foot on the moon, arrived in Mumbai.
26 October 1975 – Egyptian President Anwar Sadat became the first President of the country to make an official visit to the US.
26 October 1999 – the Supreme Court fixed the term of life imprisonment at 14 years.
26 October 2001 – Japan announced the lifting of sanctions against India and Pakistan.
26 October 2005 – It was decided in 2005 to celebrate the year 2006 as the year of India-China friendship.
26 October 2006 – a minister in Israel demanded an inquiry into the Barak deal from India.
26 October 2007 – The American space agency NASA’s important vehicle Discovery successfully landed on the International Space Station. The US imposed sanctions on Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards and its banks.
26 October 2012 – 64 people died in violent clashes in Burma.
26 October 2015 – A 7.5-magnitude earthquake struck the Hindukush Mountain range in northeastern Afghanistan, killing 398 people, injuring 2536.
National Days
Austria National Day, also known as the Austrian National Holiday, is celebrated on October 26th each year. This day commemorates the country’s declaration of permanent neutrality, which occurred on October 26th, 1955. It marks the day when the last foreign troops left Austrian soil, following the Austrian State Treaty. The Treaty recognized Austria as an independent and sovereign state after the end of World War II.